Opening: May 2, 6-9 pm
We are delighted to inaugurate an exhibition with new paintings by Richard Phillips during the Gallery Weekend Berlin, which will be on view from May 2 until June 7, 2014 in Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Richard Phillips' work is reflecting mass media, image production and its role in today's society in a critical way. In his examination of imagery and forms of display questions arise of how media and propaganda techniques can shape, distort and invert the meaning of images. Phillips uses a variety of different sources and besides images of pop and trash icons he utilises portraits of politicians and elements taken from the news as well as advertisements. They show the inexhaustible diversity of the current media image archive and the longing for increasing visualisation of the world. Transferred into the medium of painting, a medium that is almost de facto guaranteed as art, Phillips revalues the images, extends their context and at the same time questions their relevance.
The exhibition displays a group of paintings which show the Romanian top model Catrinel Menghia posing with Pop Art classics as well as works by contemporary artists as Jeff Koons. Only half-dressed and in provocative poses the paintings present Menghia in front of - sometimes also interacting with – works of Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Hamilton or Robert Indiana, among others. Flower Mirror, 2013, depicts Menghia in front of a work by Jeff Koons which is in turn reflecting both Menghia and a light installation by the artist Leo Villareal in the background. Love, 2014, shows the model stretching out on the letters of the word Love, referring to Robert Indiana's famous work from 1966. In Slip It To Me, 2014, the lascivious posture emphasizes the sexual connotation of the sentence Slip It To Me that can be seen on the work Epiphany, 1964, by Richard Hamilton.
Inspired by a photo shoot which has taken place at a prominent art collection that includes all depicted works, Phillips explores art's interdependency with fashion and luxury display. There is an obvious affinity to advertisement, but also Pin-Up and Playboy aesthetics that lead back to the initial inspirations of Pop Art. Furthermore, the paintings illustrate the correlation of beauty, desire and sexuality with power and money and thus continue Phillips' approach of previous series.
Previously, his paintings were known for a smooth and even surface that almost wouldn't reveal its painterly origin. In his new series, for the first time they have a visible texture. Phillips doesn't veil the brushstrokes anymore to give an ultra-photographic appearance to the depicted, but works with the plasticity and structure of the applied colour. Thus, these works develop an unusual spatiality and at the same time emphasise their production process.
Simultaneously the gallery will be presenting an exhibition of works by Robert Holyhead in Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg. This is the first solo exhibition of Robert Holyhead with Galerie Max Hetzler.
Furthermore, we are happy to announce the inauguration of a new space in Paris, opening May 17, 2014 with a solo show of new paintings by Albert Oehlen.
Richard Phillips, born 1962 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, lives and works in New York. This is his fourth solo exhibition with Galerie Max Hetzler. Phillips' work was presented in several solo shows in institutions, such as Dallas Contemporary, Dallas (2014); Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Warth (2011); Swiss Institute, New York (2010); Le Consortium, Dijon (2004); Kunstverein Hamburg (2002) and Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich (2000). Furthermore, Richard Phillips formed part of important group exhibitions at international institutions, such as Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev; Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York (2012); Kunstmuseum, Lucerne (2008); Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica (2006); Museum Folkwang, Essen (2004) as well as Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2003).
Upcoming exhibitions and art fair participations:
Robert Holyhead
Gallery Weekend Berlin
Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg
May 2 – June 7, 2014
Opening: May 2, 6-9 pm
Albert Oehlen
57, rue du Temple, 75004 Paris
May 17 – June 25, 2014
Opening: May 17, 6-8 pm
Navid Nuur
CHOICES PARIS
École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts
14, rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris
May 23 – May 25, 2014
Halftone: Through the Grid
Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin-Charlottenburg
June 14 – July 26, 2014
Opening: June 14, 6-8 pm
Vera Lutter
Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg
June 14 – July 26, 2014
Opening: June 14, 6-8 pm
ART BASEL
June 19 – 22, 2014
Halftone: Through the Grid
57, rue du Temple, 75004 Paris
June 28 – July 30, 2014
Opening: June 28, 6-8 pm
Press contact: presse@maxhetzler.com or (+49) 30 346 497 85-0
